Diversity of plasmids inStaphylococcus saprophyticusisolated from urinary tract infections in women

Abstract

A group of 150 Staphylococcus saprophyticus strains isolated from urinary tract infections in women were included in this study. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests showed that these isolates were sensitive to most antimicrobial agents. All strains were sensitive to penicillin, cephalothin, gentamicin, kanamycin, trimethoprim and nitrofurantoin. Resistance to tetracycline was present in 10.6% of the strains, to chloramphenicol in 4%, to erythromycin in 1.3% and to streptomycin in 1.3%. All strains were resistant to cadmium chloride as well as to novobiocin and nalidixic acid. Plasmid analysis showed that 82% of the strains harboured plasmids, some of them with complex plasmid profiles. Most plasmids were considered to be cryptic, although antibiotic resistance plasmids were identified in 18 isolates. Tetracycline resistance was encoded by a plasmid of c. 2.8 MDa, chloramphenicol resistance by a plasmid of c. 2.9 MDa and erythromycin resistance by a plasmid of c. 1.6 MDa. Streptomycin resistance could not be linked to the presence of any specific plasmid. Plasmid profiling seemed to be a good method for differentiating among S. saprophyticus strains.

Phage typing of Staphylococcus saprophyticus

“…Finally since Melo Cristino, Torres Pereira and Andrade [21] described a diversity of plasmids in S. saprophyticas isolated from UTI, with 82% of the strains harbouring plasmids, some of them with complex plasmid profiles, we anticipate that phage typing in association with plasmid profiling may be Phage typing of S. saprophyticus 563 complementary methods with strong discriminatory power for differentiating among S. saprophyticus strains.…”

Characterizing Plasmids in Bacteria Species Relevant to Urinary Health

“…Staphylococci plasmids are relevant to antibiotic resistance and virulence, and gene content from these can be homologous to other Gram-positive species ( 17 , 49 , 50 ). Plasmids have been profiled in Staphylococcus saprophyticus isolates from women with UTI ( 51 , 52 ). There is much less known about the role that plasmids from other species play in the urinary tract, but we can make inferences from our broader understanding of their plasmid biology.…”